The City of Toronto and Toronto Life magazine, as part of Toronto’s Live With Culture campaign and Toronto Life’s 40th Anniversary celebrations, are pleased to launch “face the arts,” a campaign to recognize Toronto’s extraordinary cultural mavericks. The first recipient is community arts activist Adonis Huggins.

“face the arts” is a 10-month campaign to acknowledge and provide wider exposure for each of the recipients who, through artistic promise, achievement or vision, has enriched the cultural life of the city both now and for future generations. From March until December 2006, 10 individuals from diverse artistic disciplines will be featured within the pages of Toronto Life and on torontolife.com.

“This citation serves two great purposes; it recognizes an individual’s history of artistic achievement and encourages his or her cultural contributions to the life of our city,” said Rita Davies, Executive Director of Toronto Culture. “With ‘face the arts’ and the broader Live With Culture campaign, the City demonstrates its appreciation for the ways in which artists and cultural institutions enrich the quality of life in Toronto.”

“Toronto Life has always reflected the unique cultural greatness of this city,” explained
Sharon McAuley, Publisher of Toronto Life, “so we knew it would provide the perfect
environment for the City to showcase the stories of these remarkable recipients. As we gear up to
celebrate Toronto Life’s 40th Anniversary, we are thrilled to play a role in recognizing those that are helping to nurture the development of the city.”

As Program Director of Regent Park Focus, Adonis Huggins has a keen interest in the use of community-based media as a tool of engagement and social change. Over the past 14 years he has been working with youth in Regent Park to develop prevention programs and activities that offer young people opportunities to explore radio and print journalism, and audio, video and photography arts.

Each month, a different acclaimed photographer will take the photos of the individuals profiled in Toronto Life. Tony Fouhse was chosen to photograph Mr. Huggins for Toronto Life’s March issue on newsstands February 13. Mr. Fouhse has been a photographer since 1976, winning a National Magazine Award in 2004. Text accompanying all photographs is contributed by Toronto Poet Laureate Pier Giorgio Di Cicco.

“face the arts” will recognize individuals in community arts activism, music, architecture, theatre, dance, visual arts, film, literature, design and arts development. Recipients are not asked to apply for this honour but instead are chosen by peer selection committees. “face the arts” will close with an exhibition of the 10 photographs that appeared in the pages of Toronto Life.

Funding for “face the arts” has been provided by the City of Toronto, the Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund and the Government of Canada through the Cultural Capital of Canada program. Toronto Life is a presenting sponsor of this program.

Since 1966, Toronto Life has been helping involved Torontonians understand and participate in the life of their city. Torontonians have come to depend on the magazine for authoritative recommendations and reviews regarding the city’s best restaurants, services, events and more. And Toronto Life, with its unique brand of award-winning writing and service journalism, continues to capture the essence and richness of the city.

Live With Culture is a 16-month celebration of Toronto’s extraordinary arts and cultural communities, shining a spotlight on the vibrant and diverse activities happening in the city each and every day. From September 2005 until the end of 2006, Live With Culture showcases the vast scope of the city’s culture of creativity and inspires culture in Toronto to become a daily part of everyone’s life. How do you live with culture? Visit http://www.LiveWithCulture.ca, the ultimate guide to Toronto’s culture scene.